Why is it that after removing Internet Explorer my desktop Icons and start menu no longer appear on screen?

Question

I removed three microsoft softwares through the Add&Remove program and had no problems, but once the computer was turned off at night and turned back on in the morning, I no longer have most of my desktop icons plus the start menu no longer appears. Why did this happen? Does anyone know of this happening to anyone else? Is this a self distruct ploy by microsoft if you try removing the IE Browser from your computer?

Answer 1

You should not try to remove it. Just don't use it.

Answer 2

I don't like or use Internet Exploder, however, Microsoft has made sure that you don't remove it, by tyhing the ability to use the microsoft update web site to IE.  Without IE, you can not run security updated on your system, as Firefox (and other) browsers will not work with it.

Also, the program "explorer.exe" is the program that displays your desktop. Not to be confused with iexplorer...

I'd just go back to Add/remove programs, on the left under windows components check the IE stuff and re-install, just make firefox or what ever browser you want your default browser.

Answer 3

Sounds like there is a problem with your Windows Explorer as opposed to IE.

When explorer.exe stops running, what you are describing occurs. You actually cannot entirely remove IE from windows, it is built in.

You can manually start explorer.exe from the task manager (hit ctrl+shift+esc together) then click new task, and type explorer into the box and hit enter.

That manually starts explorer.exe which is at least a quick fix, however you probably need more work than that to fix the problem completely.

Solution: switch to Mac :)